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It’s About Time What’s Ailing You? Part 1 Written by Susan Parsons Old medical instruments and carrying bag Early pioneer doctors received their training by apprenticing with practicing doctors. In the colonial era, no certification was needed to practice medicine. It was not even a requirement to apprentice, though many aspiring doctors did. In rural areas a lack of teachers, facilities and cadavers for dissection limited any sort of medical education other than through apprenticeship. Their scientific knowledge was minimal though they knew how to amputate or set bones and had knowledge of ---PAGE BREAK--- herbal remedies. They had little knowledge of germs or sanitation. They had to contend with travel by horse to calls at all hours with no other doctors for consultation and very few hospitals that were far distant. They had to deal with harsh weather, patients with no money to pay the bill, and epidemics such as influenza, scarlet fever, typhoid fever, cholera, diphtheria and smallpox. Blood poisoning and “inflammation of the bowels,” were other doctor-summoning ailments. Purgings, bleedings, and administration of calomel, a mercury compound, were standard treatments for almost every disease. People developed a skeptical attitude toward doctors and often relied on home remedies. Families did not call on physicians for common illnesses such as colds or constipation. They had home remedies for those ailments, some of which are considered dangerous or laughable today, such as using an onion poultice on the chest for a cold. Doctors, too, had some dangerous practices such as that of bleeding the ill patient. They created prescriptions and handed out the directions for making them to administer to sick patients. For example, a cure for worms was to use white ash bark from the roots of the north side of the tree, dry it, and give a teaspoonful mixed with molasses. Page from medical equipment catalog, circa 1901 ---PAGE BREAK--- No standards for medical training existed--when doctors were trained by way of education. Anyone could start a medical school; one just needed to amass the investment funds. The most successful medical schools were the ones that attracted the most students--bringing in the most money. For example, in 1847 when reform was attempted at the University of Medical School by lengthening the school year from four to five ½ months, enrollment quickly declined and reform was abandoned. The curriculum varied widely among schools. Most teachers were practicing doctors who taught when not seeing patients. Medical students did not intern to gain hands-on experience. Most of the time the first patient the new doctor saw was after graduation. All the classroom lectures about disease were supposed to somehow transfer into actually diagnosing sick people. Some of the theories of medicine dated back to Roman times. Many of the scientific understandings we know today were unknown then. In 1847, the American Medical Association was founded which over time helped to create standards for education, training and licensing of doctors. When medical schools became affiliated with universities, students gained some access to scientific knowledge, but even near the end of the 19th Century, it was not clearly understood what caused most disease. Bacteria were just being discovered but their role in disease was not known. It was not clear to science how the body worked. Most of the standard treatments did little good, anyway, and some were dangerous. For example, using large doses of mercury for various ailments was actually toxic. Calomel, a poisonous mercury compound was dispensed for a laxative, purging agent, and for yellow fever and syphilis. In the American Colonies a few had dared to try to give family members immunity to small pox by exposing them to the actual bacteria. They would deposit material directly from a small pox lesion onto another person. By the 1790s, after Jenner’s discovery that few people got small pox if they had cowpox disease, he began to vaccinate people in England with cowpox. The idea spread to the States. By the 1870s, smallpox vaccinations became more common, but no other diseases were treated with inoculations. (The last smallpox case treated by a doctor in Fair Haven was in 1907.) Louis Pasteur’s discovery of bacteria in the fermentation process led to the increased understanding of disease--that it was caused by micro-organisms in the environment, and not the wrath of God. This germ theory of disease gradually ---PAGE BREAK--- became accepted as doctors became more successful in treating disease. In the 1880’s the so-called “bacteriological revolution” began to take place where there were attempts to find the agents causing disease and then to create inoculating agents to protect people. In 1885, Pasteur came up with a rabies vaccine. In the 1930s similar discoveries and agents for diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus began to be used. By the 1950s polio was “conquered.” Scientists are still working on agents for malaria, HIV and ebola. Old amputation saw Fair Haven’s first recorded permanent physician was Dr. John Crounce who arrived in the 1840s and left for Albany by about 1859. In about 1850, Byron Dewitt arrived to practice medicine so for a time Fair Haven had two practicing physicians. He enlisted in the Union army. These doctors were followed very briefly by Truman Brinkerhoff. Then, for about ten years, Fair Haven had no doctor; however, residents were treated by Sterling doctors Dr. Hugh Proudfit, AKA Proudfoot, and Dr. George ---PAGE BREAK--- McKnight. Finally, in 1873 Dr. Field located in Fair Haven for a brief period, followed by Dr. Oliver Bloomfield in 1875. Dr. Marsh soon arrived to practice as well, again giving Fair Haven two doctors. The Village was gaining population because of the coming of the railroad. A few times Fair Haven had three practicing doctors! Many other doctors also lived and/or practiced in the Village. For example, Dr. Virginia McKnight, spouse of Dr. George McKnight, located herself in the Village of Fair Haven, on the south side of Main Street, in a house now known as the 1864 House next to what is now the Hardware Cafe. (She also was elected President of the Village, one of the first women in New York State to become a mayor.) ---PAGE BREAK--- Dr. Virginia McKnight ---PAGE BREAK--- Dr. Leon Griggs served the Village from 1921-1931. Some of our senior citizens were delivered by Dr. Griggs. His son and wife have a summer home on West Main Street. The last physician practicing in Fair Haven was Dr. George B. Hanford. Several of his descendants still live in the Village. Dr. Leon Griggs From about 1890-1910 the fee for delivering a baby in the Fair Haven area was $15.00. At that time babies could have been delivered by Dr. A.L. Hall (1884-1900), Dr. R.H. Dee (1892-1899 and 1904-1906), Dr. T.B. Wettling (1900-1908), Dr. G.I. Post (1900-1903), Dr. Virginia H. Knight (1902-1918), Dr. F.S. Tillapaugh (1906-1907), Dr. I.J. Hill (1909-1923), Dr. Jason Wiley (1914), or Dr. H. Fuller Knight (1916-1917). ---PAGE BREAK--- Dr. Ira and Mrs. Lucy Hill. He was a practicing physician in Fair Haven They were the parents of Robert D. Hill ---PAGE BREAK--- Dr. George Bayard Hanford, Fair Haven’s last permanent physician Sources: Fair Haven Register Fair Haven Folks and Folklore, Raymond T. Sant, 1941, 2002 Pioneers of Sterling, NY, Hallie DeMass Sweeting, 1998 ---PAGE BREAK--- archives.upenn.edu dpsinfo.com ebay